Customer Satisfaction Literature Review

The literature review on customer satisfaction has been carried out by keeping in mind that the customers of EAI are the parents who make the purchase decision

Many studies on customer satisfaction have come to identify that customer satisfaction is influenced by a number of different factors; organizations should manage these key factors closely in order to retain its Customers. Education can be considered an important fulfilment in the life of a majority of Sri Lankans. The customer of education is the parent/ guardian who makes the purchase decision to spend on the child, these customers expect the service provider (EAI) to have a high standard of education as they are paying for these services. (Kim, Park and Jeong, 2004).

2.1 Customer

(Juran, 1988). While the above description of quality looks primarily at a good (tangible), services are considered to be inseparable, this means that both the production and consumption of a service takes place at the same time. Further, the nature of a service is variable and does not result in the same pattern of work at all times, thus a service can be both simple and complex. (Ograjenˇsek, 2008).

Quality can be assessed by the good behaviour of the service provider; this may result in the positive relationship and impression on the customers which may translate into customer satisfaction (Soderlund and Rosengren, 2008). Service quality can be considered a direct determinant of customer satisfaction; thus the organizations must pay more attention on the quality of their services. Hence, organizations must device programs to measure service quality and customer satisfaction. (Ojo, 2010). At EAI the methods devised can be considered to be parents’ teachers’ meetings and monthly examinations of

Tam (2004) found that if customers perceive that the value of the service they are receiving is high, they are likely to be highly satisfied. Other research by Dharmalingam (2011) produced findings that indicated that attributes of service quality have a positive correlation with customer satisfaction.

The need for a higher level of service quality has grown by leaps and bounds due to the increasingly competitive environment, thus service quality acts as an essential strategy for survival and success (Ismail et al. 2006). Thereby, companies must always be mindful of customers and must constantly ask themselves questions such as; what do customers want from us? What strategies can be used to improve current customer perceptions (Hong and Goo et al. 2004)

For a customer quality of a single product can be measured by the superiority of that product or service. In other words, the customers’ judgment about a product in terms of excellence and superiority (Zeithaml,